Blackbird

Such a beautiful song, and such great comments. One person stated that Sir Paul himself recently said the song was written about troubled girls in South America in the 60's. I'm going to look more on the internet, but if Sir Paul did say that, well, he would be the one to know.

To me, part of the beauty of art, including poetry and song, is to explore what it means to you, in your own mind. As a physician with a busy schedule I still long for a day when I can take classes and explore art ddeply. It opens my mind, creating new ways of thinking, new ideas, news ways to express old ideas, realizations and better understanding of myself, and connection and openness to everyone and everything around me.

I first heard this song this week, on an episode of Glee. I actually thought it was about death, and the release from human limitation and suffering into an afterlife of peace and freedom. I'm so glad I looked for the lyrics and found this website! I appreciate all your comments and points of view. Isn't it interesting how our different lives and experiences have created so many different interpretations of the same song? I wish that, in our national discourse, we could all appreciate and respect the differences that make each of us unique and special. That's much more interesting and beautiful to me than everyone thinking and acting and being the same.

I always heard this song was about the plight of African Americans and the yearn to break free and have equal rights.

I've seen Paul live twice, and both times, he played Blackbird, and both times, he said that it was about the civil rights movement. This would be backed up with "You were only waiting for this moment, to be free"

A sweet anthemic gem.

A bird with broken wings, black feathers against the bleak backdrop of a coal black night, yearning to break free. And that funny little paradoxical refrain - "...into the light of a dark black night." The mental image is a sliver of moon or winking stars, but really I take it to mean that no matter how metaphorically dark your surroundings, there is always a dim glimmer to be found. We all have our blackbird moments, and broken wings or not, it's up to us to hobble our way towards the light.

I love this song. Its always just been an example for to keep pushing on, all my life. the song itself is so simple; yet it captures me. Brilliant.

I just heard/saw my 12 year old daughter sing this in front of 100 people solo with a microphone. She's a quiet kid who gets nervous in front of a crowd -and she nailed it! I'm still crying thinking about how beautiful and strong she sounded :)

I thought that this song was about the difficulty of the civil rights movement and just the discrimination and hardships in general of the African-American community.

i dunno if u guys heard that tappin in the song but i read somewhere that was john's foot tappin to the beat

I played and sang this as a lullaby for my daughter for years. She looked forward to hearing it every night. She once said that she would like for me to play and sing it at her wedding. But that was long ago. I will always think of this song as the background music for any depiction, description or memory of the bond between her and me. So maybe it'll play when Dad and newlywed daughter do their post-wedding dance...

I understand Paul wrote Blackbird in regard to the civil rights movement however I find it interesting that the Blackbird is a symbol of a Celtic goddess Rhiannon. She stands for feminism and he is singing about a black bird. I think too much.